Stalin met oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan in New Delhi. He requested the minister to "refrain from according sanction" to the project in the interest of the farmers and the people of the state.Meera Vankipuram | TNN | February 24, 2017, 20:35 IST

Stalin met the minister in New Delhi. He requested the minister to "refrain from according sanction" to the project in the interest of the farmers and the people of the state.

He said that locals and farmers "firmly believe" that this project would badly affect the agriculture and livelihood of lakhs of people living around the project area, and that they were afraid that their natural resources would be lost “due to indiscriminate digging of deep wells” for this project.

Asserting that the project in Neduvasal is "absolutely contrary to the wishes of the people of Tamil Nadu", he added that the project is "opposed by lakhs of people."

On March 3, the PMK staged a protest against the hydrocarbon exploration project in Neduvasal and at Karaikal. Party leader and MP Anbumani Ramadoss said that the project would "destroy agricultural land and ground water" in the delta districts.